The Unforgiving Eye of the Camera

The camera and its subsequent digital imagery is ruthless in showing me everything I’ve done wrong.

It’s so frustrating when I finish a session for the day, thinking I did well, only to see the drawing later in digital format and hate everything I did. But, would I rather be blind to all my mistakes.

Heck no!

This is one of the best things about posting daily. I get to see some reproductions of my work during the process and fix any issues as they come about. I’m sure every old master would have killed to have such a unbiased critique of their work.

Instead of seeing my daily challenges as failures I’m going to choose to see them as opportunities, big bright neon sights with pointing arrows, leading me on a direct path of mastery.

Here is what can be improved on Jon Snow so far as I see it.

• Fill in the rest of his hair and some of his coat first. The lack of correct value and edges here is confusing the shape of the face.
• Push his far brow further back in space and turn the form with a bit more shading. Same with the whole left side of his face.
• Darken the shadow side of his face on the right so the core shadow doesn’t stand out so much. Or lighten the core shadow.
• The structure of his mouth and chin needs work. Something about the form of the muzzle not curving in space.
• Darken the value of his neck.

For tomorrows session I’ll use this information as my action list, and spiral up.

Previous Jon Snow Drawing Posts

• Smoothing the Surface
• Taking My Time Drawing
• Recharge My Energy and Motivation
• Jon Snow Drawing

Warm-up

The normal 15 minute warm-up in graphite.

What went well, what was awesome! Celebrate It!

Lots done on art and work plus I changed my thinking, and the world around me, by seeing these posts and my issues as opportunities. The unforgiving eye of the camera is a tool that I can use to get better.

What needs work? What did you learn?

Remind myself in the future that every challenge and setback is an opportunity to get better. Have a mistake learners high, just like Ray Dalio.

How am I going to Optimize moving forward?

Tomorrow I’ll follow my action list and improve this drawing!